


Wĕn Wŏ Ba

by Omnicat



Category: Darker Than Black
Genre: F/M, Flirting, Heaven's Gate War, Human/Contractor Relationships, Languages
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-04
Updated: 2010-02-04
Packaged: 2017-10-07 00:55:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/59619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Omnicat/pseuds/Omnicat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hei has nothing better to do than watch the stars. Amber has nothing better to do than show off her newfound linguistic skills.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wĕn Wŏ Ba

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Nederlands available: ['Wĕn Wŏ Ba'](https://archiveofourown.org/works/114477) by [CattyRosea (Omnicat)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Omnicat/pseuds/CattyRosea)



> Context should tell you all you need to know to understand the fic, but complete translations for the Chinese phrases used are at the bottom. Enjoy!

A pair of hands came down hard on Hei’s left shoulder, for no particular reason and with no real warning save for lazily muffled footsteps, and not for the first time or the last, Amber breathed _“Boo,”_ in his ear.

“Fright,” he said, and turned his head to look at her. Her hair tickled his face and made him squirm; a satisfactory alternative to a threat response. “Hello to you too.”

There was no point in trying to put any serious effort into this game, so they didn’t. There was no point in the game at all, strictly speaking, but they played it anyway. They had an awful lot of time to while away between killing or being killed, and Hei was probably the only person in the jungles surrounding Heaven’s Gate, Contractor or human, who would play along with Amber just for the sake of pretense.

She appreciated his cooperation, for more reasons than one.

“Watching the stars again?”

He was alone, leaning back against a crate with his legs sprawled out towards a small fire. Strictly speaking, the crate was not big enough to accommodate two, but Amber sidled up to Hei’s side anyway, pretending not to notice.

He didn’t complain.

“Pai and Carmine are out tonight,” he murmured instead.

Unless her senses were playing tricks on her (which wouldn’t have surprised her, for any number of reasons), Amber thought she heard him sigh – almost imperceptibly – and felt him sag against her – just barely. His body was warm and firm against her side.

“Can you tell which stars are theirs?”

“Yes.”

“Just like that?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know mine too?”

His arm went up.

Amber rested her head on his shoulder, to copy his line of vision. Mostly.

(This effort, too, was futile.)

“Hm.” She tilted her head even further, until she could look at his face. “Nĭde yănjing zhēn mírén.”

“What?”

The look on his face made her smile.

“Nĭde yănjing zhēn mírén,” she repeated, slowly and clearly, before switching back to English. “In your mother tongue, that means ‘you have such pretty eyes’.”

Hei raised an eyebrow as if to say _‘really now?’_. “Your pronunciation is atrocious.”

“Alright, I’ll try something else. Nĭ yuànyì péiwo shuì yīwăn ma?”

A dubious wrinkle appeared between his eyebrows. Her pronunciation must be worse than she’d thought, because Amber was sure she’d gotten the words right.

“Stay with you tonight, you mean?” His head dropped back over the edge of the crate and his eyes trailed off towards the zenith. “Nĭ yuànyì péiwo shuì yīwăn ma...” he murmured, his voice as distant as his gaze.

“That’s what I said.” She poked his ribs, startling him. “If you have nothing better to do tonight than sit around stargazing, I might as well keep you company. Wŏ xiăng gēn nĭ shàngchuáng.”

Still blinking in surprise, Hei allowed her to cup his cheek and caress his jaw.

“How did you learn such terrible Chinese?” he asked distractedly.

“A box full of self study language tapes I found. These are the first five minutes of the Social Relations cassette.”

Of course they were in Brazil, so the tapes were meant to teach Chinese to speakers of Portugese, which Amber wasn’t fluent in either. But that was beside the point.

_Good thing I’m the only one crazy enough to do this to you,_ was the point.

Smiling, she manoeuvred herself face to face with him, hands on her knees, knees on either side of his thighs. Her gaze flickered between his eyes and his lips as she leaned forward. “Wŏ ài nĭ, Hei.”

Just three little words, in every language she knew. Sometimes she wondered how she’d ever forgotten how simple it was.

“Are you sure you don’t know more than five minutes of Chinese?” Hei asked.

“Are you sure you want to know?”

For a long moment, they only stared at each other. Even this close up, Amber could not read his expression. But even though she couldn’t put a finger on it, eventually something in his gaze seemed to change, like a switch being flipped.

“Wĕn wŏ ba,” she whispered.

He did.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments on older fics will _always_ remain welcome. :)
> 
> Legend
> 
> _“Nĭde yănjing zhēn mírén.”_ – ‘You have such beautiful eyes.’ in (Mandarin) Chinese  
> _“Nĭ yuànyì péiwo shuì yīwăn ma?”_ – ‘Will you stay with me tonight?’ in (Mandarin) Chinese  
> _“Wŏ xiăng gēn nĭ shàngchuáng.”_ – ‘I want to sleep with you.’ in (Mandarin) Chinese  
> _“Wŏ ài nĭ.”_ – ‘I love you.’ in (Mandarin) Chinese  
> _“Wĕn wŏ ba.”_ – ‘Kiss me.’ in (Mandarin) Chinese
> 
> All the Chinese used in this fic came from a cheap travelling guide I own, and the translations were originally in Dutch; I translated them into English from there. So essentially the same situation Amber finds herself in. I have been told the accuracy of my translations-of-translations is questionable at best, but that’s fine by me. Just helps get the point across!


End file.
